This afternoon's great PopCap mystery may now be a little less mysterious: a Canadian industry source with ties to Electronic Arts has told Kotaku that a small team at EA's Burnaby campus is working on a new entry in the Plants vs Zombies franchise.

While that sounds crazy, remember, this afternoon's Superannuation story summed up the mystery PopCap project as potentially a "cartoony, mechanically-novel and possibly multiplayer-oriented 3D action game for consoles".

Which certainly fits with what Kotaku has since been told: that the small team, comprised mostly of former members of EA's Black Box studio (Skate, Need for Speed), is working on a Plants vs Zombies console title that's "in the vein of Team Fortress 2".

The project is still in its early stages; we're told it won't even be submitted for PopCap's final approval until later this month. So as awesome/awful as the idea may sound to you, there's still a chance the game won't be green-lit.

Asked for confirmation on the rumour, a PopCap representative declined to comment on the story.